I'm looking at a 2008 SG on reverb.com, and it's being advertised as having a "limited edtion" neck, marked 12/721 in what looks like magic marker on the back of the headstock. Does anyone know anything about these? Is it legit?
I also just received this photo of the checklist. It looks to me like there's been some erasures and changes in the "Packed by" area. This one is starting to smell fishy to me.
What exactly looks "fishy" to you? I don't even see anything interesting. Easy enough to cross check model/serial numbers with gibson or online for any special runs. Sooooo many special runs.
There's nothing in the Reverb listing that should give you any pause. I mean.. the sketchiest thing to me is Florida. The seller looks like a fairly large retailer. Why not ask them direct questions?
I've talked to them several times. I don't think the seller is necessarily being devious; I believe it's just a trade-in guitar that an overzealous previous owner marked up. I'm pretty sure the checklist and headstock markings didn't leave the factory that way. I passed; there are many other fish in the sea.
Yeah, I don't have any knowledge of such a model being produced in 2008 and I've never seen Gibson USA number guitars in marker on the back of the headstock like that. The Custom Shop will do that, but this is clearly a USA model. In addition, the USA generally does not do runs in such small batches, or with any real production limit (with some exceptions). Then, you have the marker color not matching the rest of the QC card writing. And finally, why would the "limited edition" status be denoted where it's supposed to be signed by the worker who packed it? Granted, Gibson can be weird sometimes so it's not impossible, but I would lean toward distrusting it and certainly email Gibson before thinking about making an offer. I've seen many a seller wind up some ridiculous tales of how their bog standard guitar is somehow special, but this would take it to another level. Can you link the ad? I'd like to check it out more.
If I was a betting man, I would say there is all kinds of red flags here. My conclusion is a standard run of the mill USA SG, nothing fancy, nothing limited. All someone did was write on it with sharpie and wreck a packing slip... I would like to be wrong, but that’s where I put my money